The Taste of Nature

The pairings are about how I expected them to be. I knew Janggeum and Yeonsaeng would end up sharing a room, and Yeongro with the freckle-faced girl. I imagined Geum-young and Changi to share a room, but instead they’re separated into threes. With that make up, it’s only natural for Changi to be with Janggeum’s group.

The girls are Maewha court ladies to begin with. I will not remember this. They will strive to become Nancho level, at which time they move from three to a room to only two to a room. I shall remember this only because I’ll keep thinking of it as the nacho level. A solitary room is for the Gukwha level. I will not remember that one, either.

When Janggeum and Yeonsaeng reach level two (Nancho), they’ll probably be together. What about Changi? And will Yeongro continue to bunk with the freckled kid, or will she and Guem-young share a room?

With Choi Geum-young, Jang Eunbee, and Yun Yeongro in one room together, this means the freckled girl is Eunbee. Other arrangements have the random characters Rokyi Cho, Yeonhwa Lim, and Yoonji Kim in a room. Could they be the three who congratulate Geum-young? There are enough girls to fill seven Maewha level rooms.

Is it possible to be allergic to turtles? Just by being around them, even? Thankfully Changi takes a quick liking to Dani. It almost looked as if there was going to be a problem between the trio of girls from day one.

Janggeum, as it is her personality, cannot simply stay in a room while there’s a whole palace to explore. Changi’s thoughts matched my own: You’ll be there long enough to see it all in due time. But where’s the fun that in that? Poor Yeonsaeng looks to face many troubles she didn’t want to get into in the first place due to being friends with Janggeum.

The dark-haired lady who scolded Janggeum and Yeonsaeng for being away from their area, she also watched them in the forest. There’s obviously something about her. Could she be with the enemy? She has the same blue eyes, but her eye brows may be thicker. Also, her face is longer. If she wore her hair down, would it reach just below her waist when braided into a ponytail? She could be an insider in the palace for the enemy. Or she can simply be another blue-eyed, black-haired lady. If she is the assassin, then it would do her good to ensure Janggeum and the king do not meet, as Janggeum would recognize him. Nonetheless, I’m leaning toward “they’re not the same person” right now.

It’s revealed that that king became king only recently. It may very well be that the assassin ninjas kills his parents. Unnamed king, the new king of Chosun. I’m assuming Chosun is the name of the kingdom.

“Lion dog” is definitely a proper name for the kind of dog given as a present. I thought it was a white lion until Jangho’s face was shown, which has an obvious dog snout. Here’s hoping I don’t confuse names between Jangho and Jeong-ho. I’m already confusing looks between Jeong-ho and the other soldier guy.

Speaking of those two, they may have been friends, at least friends who met as soldiers in the king’s army, and Jeong-ho promoted to king’s personal guard.

If Geum-young’s aunt is a court lady, then is her aunt the brown-haired third lady, seen previously alongside the dark-haired Eun and Han, the one from whom Janggeum asked for the chance to learn to cook at the castle?

Geum-young looks to be a loner just waiting to be befriended. Hopefully Yeongro won’t have a negative effect on her, because Janggeum’s already having a positive one.

The results of the test appear as if Yeonsaeng won by luck, and maybe she didn’t, but it might be a talent of hers she didn’t realize she had. I still think the girls will complement one another’s styles in a large meal cooking later in the series, but for now Yeonsaeng’s having a good day. Well, except for the whole “ostrich egg growing legs and running away” thing.

The girl who surprised me the most was Changi. Yeongro is obviously the type to take from others to improve her own dish, but I didn’t expect Changi to go all-out physical attack on her. And it just kept going and going. I was initially afraid the two would bunk together, and Yeongro would make life miserable for Changi. Instead, I learn Changi can well enough take care of herself!

What fun it is to have Janggeum run by as Jeong-ho wonders who owns the ring she lost. Does he recognize her from town? Is that why he helped her? Or does he simply feel no reason to let her be caught?

Judging by artwork on the DVD box, Tayo will hang out in his egg for some time. Yeongro will continue to do her best to get the other girls in trouble, but how can the teacher actually scold Janggeum for hatching the egg? Chances are it was almost ready to hatch when it was delivered, unless that’s how the egg was to be prepared and eaten. I actually expected Yeonsaeng to have Tayo as a second pet, but since she already has Dani, and Mongmong remains with Dongi, Janggeum was left lacking in the pet department.

The ninjas need to retire the older ninja. He’s having trouble keeping up. His holding the torch while Janggeum says how well the charcoal will burn is very foreboding of the events to occur. That, and the place on fire in on the title screen and the episode selection screen kind of hint about it, at least just a little. And the two fleeing ninjas, who will find the sword? A soldier? Janggeum? One of the other girls?

When it comes down to teaching style, I do like the teacher. She knows that experience is what counts. Read something one hundred times, and all you’ve done is read it one hundred times. Do something, and you experience it firsthand, something you can never achieve by reading, ever.

I’d like to take this moment to say the background artwork is simply gorgeous. Sure, some is simple, plain here and there, but at other times it’s quite detailed. The level of detail tends to be the right amount of the motion of the scene.

As things are now, Yeonsaeng looks to potentially be my favorite character. I even learned her name!